On Friday and Saturday night at Camp Jabberwocky, Dr. Frankenstein hailed from Pennsylvania rather than Transylvania, and his use of electricity didn’t sit well with the Amish villagers. Welcome to Frankenstein’s Last Dance.

Camp Jabberwocky has been around for more than 60 years now and summer wouldn’t be summer without its productions. Join staff and campers Friday, July 18 and Saturday, July 19 for Something Frankenstein.

In 1953 a few children from Fall River, some in wheelchairs and some wearing braces, clambered off the ferry and found freedom for the first time on the Vineyard. Sixty years later, Camp Jabberwocky is still changing lives.

Officially known as the Martha’s Vineyard Cerebral Palsy Camp, this extraordinary program gives adults and children with severe disabilities a few weeks each year to experience all the joys of summer — swimming, dancing, fishing, parasailing, painting, horseback riding, to name a few.

Just one visit to Camp Jabberwocky seals the deal — you will want whatever it is the camp propagates. It will take some sacrifice and a little blood, sweat and tears but the unstoppable spirit that lives among the Tumtum trees in the woods surrounding the cabins is infectious.

It was 60 years ago that Helen Lamb first brought six children with disabilities to a leaky cottage in Oak Bluffs. The rest is not just history, but her beloved legacy: Camp Jabberwocky, a residential vacation camp for people with disabilities.

Camp Jabberwocky, a summer camp for children and adults with disabilities, is enthusiastically looking forward to celebrating its 60th anniversary this summer. The celebration will also give fellow campers and me the opportunity to thank the residents of Martha’s Vineyard for helping make camp possible. For the past six decades, your generous support has succeeded in allowing the camp to grow and flourish.

The cabins are a topple of blankets and mattresses, the last of the
tents is being taken down, and remnant odds and ends have been packed in
boxes and lined up along the ramp railings. It is the middle of the
afternoon and the loudest sound is the leaves rustling overhead. Like an
empty ballroom, it is after the season at Camp Jabberwocky, and the
echoes of shouts and laughter still hover among the tree branches and
empty rooms.